Several European countries, including the UK, have criticised the detention of an Egyptian human rights lawyer who is helping investigate the murder of the Italian student Giulio Regeni.

For the first time, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Britain, as well as Canada, said they were “deeply concerned” at the continuing detention of the human rights lawyer Ibrahim Metwally Hegazy.

“We are concerned at the detention conditions that Ibrahim Metwally Hegazy is reportedly enduring, and continue to call for transparency on prison conditions in Egypt,” said a joint statement published on the British government website late on Friday.

Metwally, who founded the Association of the Families of the Disappeared after his son disappeared in suspicious circumstances four years ago, went missing on 10 September while heading for his flight to Geneva to attend a UN conference on enforced disappearances.

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Asked about the case, two judicial sources told Reuters that Metwally had been detained on charges of spreading false news and joining an illegal group, and that his pre-trial detention was in accordance with the law. The sources said all prisoners are guaranteed the right to fair treatment without discrimination.

Human rights activists say Egyptian security forces resort to kidnapping government opponents and keeping them in secret jails where they can spend weeks, months or years without charge. The authorities deny the accusation.

Regeni, an Italian PhD student who was conducting research on Egyptian trade unions, disappeared in Cairo in January 2016. His body was discovered in a ditch on the outskirts of the Egyptian capital on 3 February 2016, showing signs of extensive torture.

Metwally has been assisting lawyers working on the Regeni case as an expert on enforced disappearances, according to one of the lawyers.